Key Summary
- Cambridge researchers created human embryo-like structures from stem cells that produce blood cells
- The model mimics natural development without using eggs or sperm and cannot form a fetus
- The breakthrough could enable patient-specific regenerative therapies and blood production
Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Gurdon Institute have created human embryo-like structures that produce blood cells.
The embryo is grown from stem cells without the need for eggs or sperm.
It has the potential to create regenerative medicines.
“This sheds light on how blood cells naturally form during human embryogenesis, offering potential medical advances to screen drugs, study early blood and immune development, and model blood disorders like leukaemia,” commented Dr Jitesh Neupane, the first author of the study.
It broadens the possibility of conducting bone marrow transplants using the patient’s own cells.
For this, the researchers developed a minimalistic system where they used human stem cells to recreate cells and structures from weeks three and four of pregnancy.
This model excluded placenta, yolk sac, and brain-forming tissues, so it cannot develop into a fetus.
The team observed the embryo-like structures form three germ layers by day two, laying the foundation of the human body.
By day eight, beating heart cells appeared, which eventually develop into the human heart.
On day thirteen, the scientists witnessed blood cells in the embryo, with oxygen-carrying red blood cells and white blood cells differentiation.
This historic approach can lead to generation human blood that will be fully compatible to the patient as well.
However, unlike other lab methods needing extra proteins, the new approach mimics natural development to create blood stem cells.
“Although it is still in the early stages, the ability to produce human blood cells in the lab marks a significant step towards future regenerative therapies – which use a patient’s own cells to repair and regenerate damaged tissues,” emphasised Professor Azim Surani at the Gurdon Institute who is a senior author of the study.
The findings were published in the Cell Reports journal.
